Some hands from the WPT

[ZeeJustin]

Disclaimer: the only reason I am posting this is to avoid having to answer the same questions 100 times. This was thrown together pretty hastily, and wasn't proofread at all. There's also a decent chance that at least 1 of these hands isn't completely accurate.

Day 1: my hole cards were pretty poor all day long, so I played very few hands.

At 8k chips I got 99 in MP. EP opened for 3x BB, and I called. Heads up on the flop. Flop came 942 rainbow.
He bet 3/4 the pot. I called. Turn was an ace and he went all-in for a fairly big amount. My chips beat his into the pot, and my 99 beat his TT. That brought me up to about 18k.

I built up to about 27k chips when a huge hand happened.
200/400 blinds, 50 ante. Ep raises to 1200. MP (very good young asian player w/ about 25k chips) calls. I'm in LP w/ 98s and I call. Big blind calls.
Flop: T76hdd (i have 98hh). Checked to MP who bets 3000. I call. BB calls. Raisor folds.
Turn: Jh (giving me an irrelevent 4-flush). BB checks. MP bets 9k. I all-in. BB folds. MP calls w/ TT (he flopped top set) and my hand holds up.

That huge pot allowed me to start day 2 in 3rd w/ 59k chips.

First or second level on day 2 I got AA all-in vs KK preflop. He had about 30k chips and the pot brought me up to 95k chips or so.

At that point I'm pretty sure I had the chiplead, and it was odd that every player at the table seemed to take turns taking stabs at me. At one point I called a fairly big river bet on the Kxxxx board w/ QQ and beat 99. At another point in time I raised 77 in LP, a blind went all-in, and I made a tough call. My 7's held up vs his 98s.

At my next table, I had a huge hand. BB is 2k. Ep goes all-in for 17k. MP calls. I have QQ in the SB and have a very tough preflop decision, but I decide to just call. Flop comes ten high. I bet 30k. MP calls. Turn blanked. I figured I was [censored] and was gonna be check folding. MP was a very tough old asian guy. He seemed to play very very well. Much to my surprise, after thinking he decided to check behind on the turn (and on the river that blanked). EP and MP both had JJ, and my QQ held up. I think MP's flop call w/ JJ is only justifiable if he bets the turn when I check. There's no way I'm betting that flop w/ AK, or calling preflop with any hand worse than jacks. I still think MP is a very good player despite his mistake on this
hand.

That hand brought me up to 250k. Avg stack at this point was somewhere around 40k, so I had the chiplead for sure.

I took some beats after that. Nothing horrible, and nothing huge, but they added up. QQ lost to KQs all-in preflop. ATs lost to K2o all-in preflop.

I had a table that was playing really loose. 1500/3000 blinds. No steals have been successful at this table, and I haven't folded a single blind. Idiot in MP raised to 8000. I had K9dd in the BB and called. The antes were so big that I would have called w/ almost any 2 in that spot. The flop came KJThhh. I pushed all-in. He had about 25k left and called w/ Q8dd, and he won. I think his preflop raise was absolutely horrendous, especially w/ me in the BB. A few players weren't properly adjusting to the exceptionally large antes, but I think I made it obvious that I was overadjusting if anything. His flop call was dubious, but nothing as bad as his preflop raise.

Someone pushed on my BB w/ A6o, and I called w/ A4s and lost that too. I would have been happy w/ a split pot, but I had no such luck.

By the end of day 2, I was at 105k chips, and was still in good shape in 16th place, but I felt awful about losing such a huge chiplead. In the morning I felt a lot better though.

My table on day 3 didn't give me many oppurtunties. The table was pretty loose, and there were a ton of all-in showdowns. I was blinded/anted down to 70k chips when i found AQo in LP. It was folded to the same solid older asian player in the QQ JJ JJ hand. He raised to 12 or 14k (2k/4k blinds). I pushed all-in. He thought and thought, and finally called w/ 55, and I doubled up.

The very next hand I had 99. 8 handed. 2k/4k blinds, 500 ante. It's folded to me in the CO, and I made it 14k to go. Sitting in the CO was Alex Balandin. I hadn't played w/ him much at all since he was new to the table, but it was fairly obvious to me that he was a good, solid, thinking, aggressive player. He made it 40k. We both had about 150k chips at this point, and I decided to push. I figured he can only call w/ AK and QQ+, and he might even fold AK and QQ. If he has JJ-66 or AQ he has to fold. There's also a very good chance that he was simply attempting a resteal vs me, so I think my fold equity was enormous. It turns out he had aces. For the 3rd time in the tourney, my 9's did make a set, but unfortunately, so did his aces. I was left w/ 5k chips or something.

There were 34 people left at this point, and about 10 minutes left in the round. I folded a few hands until I was supposed to be in the BB. I got a reprieve from the warden as I was moved to another table. There were 8 minutes left in the round, and 33 players left. 2 hands later we were at the break w/ 31 players left. I was lucky to be at a table w/ people that clearly didn't know what they were doing who were able to unintentionally stall for me. I had 3k chips after the break and antes were 1k w/ 3k/6k blinds. I
folded utg+1, and we were down to 30 players when Greg Raymer busted at another table in 31st. I found KQs utg next hand, and threw my last chip in the pot. I actually wasn't in bad shape at all. If I won this pot, and the next one, I would be up to 30-35k all the sudden thanks to the antes. Unfortunately, I didn't beat the ATo or the 33 that were in that hand. I finished 30th which paid $15,600.

Overall, I'm very happy w/ the way I played. I don't regret my push w/ 9's vs Aces. I can remember one bad river call that I certainly regret, but I think I played the tournament as a whole very well. Despite my lack of live experience, it's amazing how much information I was able to extract from players w/out playing a single hand against them. Stereotyping served me well. I think I have a knack for tournament play, and I'm going to try to play as many big live tournaments as possible this year.

-Justin Bonomo

[Jason Strasser]

Nice post, fix the hair.

-jason

[Equal]

Nice report Justin and well played. Congrats.

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
It's folded to me in the CO, and I made it 14k to go. Sitting in the CO was Alex Balandin.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tough to play with him sitting in your lap and all.

well played, nice report.

[ZeeJustin]

He was in the SB.

[johnnybeef]

gl bro

[elanto]

nicely played and congratulations, youll get them next time [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]


-anto

[Bigdaddydvo]

Congrats on a hell of a run for your first live big buy in. We were certainly all cheering for you. Looking forward to see what the next one brings for you.

[ZeeJustin]

2nd. I played in aruba, but ty anyway.

[MLG]

Did you really think Alex was that good? My impression was that he was a decent player who got absolutely crushed by the deck. Then again, I also though he was an ass, so maybe that's coloring my thinking.